Ashly and Eric

Wordle Analysis

2009-06-22T16:46:00.001-07:00

I did a Wordle (http://www.wordle.net) analysis of this blog. Pretty clear who writes most of the posts.

Cycling in France, 2009

2009-05-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

This year's goal: the Puy de Dome in Auvergne, Massif Central. It's hosted a Tour stage finish or two, but probably never will again because there's enough room at the summit for all the fans, support vehicles and everything else that comes with a Tour stage.

Found out today that I'll also be able to ride while we're in Paris. I haven't done it before because I have no idea where to go, and riding in the city is a little intimidating. I found a tour company that will take me on a ride into the countryside that lies just beyond the edge of the city. I'm really looking forward to it.

Tilt-Shifting

2009-05-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

I recently read an article on the Wired site about a free, online tilt shift generator. Just upload an image and adjust to your liking. Pretty cool toy, check it out here.

The Art of Cycling

2009-05-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

I was watching stage 5 of the Giro today and as the peleton squeezed through one of the many round-abouts I noticed a cycling sculpture in the center island. It was probably put up for the Giro, but it could be a permanent fixture. Either way, it's great that the town, region, country or possibly the Giro organizers had this work commissioned and installed. It's great except that it was just another dull, semi-representational depiction of a guy on a bike. Like what you might see as the event icon in the Olympics. I realized at that moment that I've never seen a really great cycling sculpture. I've seen some famous ones, but no good ones.

I took this picture in 2007 at the top of the famous (or infamous) Tourmalet in the French Pyrenees. Again, it's fantastic that it exists and it reinforces the importance of the mountain in the history of cycling, but it's pretty bad. It's awkward and ungainly, if not a little ugly. And that guy is no cyclist, look at the size of him!

In 2008 I visited Ventoux in Provence. Again, a fabled col worthy a decent monument. This is what I found just outside Bedoin, the most famous of the three ascents. Yes, sculpture can be two dimensional.

I thought I'd search the internet a little to see what else I could find. This is one of the first hits I got looking for cycling sculpture. A dog-faced, dread-locked creature on a bike. WTF?

I remembered a work from Boccioni that illustrates the power and motion of a human figure in a way that no cycling sculpture I've ever seen has. I wish Boccioni had been a cycling fan. He could have captured the power and the pain and the suffering that is cycling. I would love to see it.

Dinner at Table 16

2009-05-07T18:28:00.000-07:00

About two weeks ago Ashly and I went to Table 16 on Elm St. for our anniversary dinner. We had been once before when they first opened, at least one chef and two concepts ago, and didn't find it especially compelling. We were hearing good things about the new chef and menu from trusted sources, so we decided to try it out.

The menu looked great, but more intriguing was the chef's tasting menu. After some deliberation Ashly and I decided to go for that. We were 'interviewed' briefly by the waiter to cover food allergies, likes and dislikes and soon the first course was arriving at the table. I can't remember now exactly what each course was now, but they were all fantastic and appropriately portioned, some a little on the generous side. After four excellent courses the waiter asked if we were ready for a desert course or if we would like another savory. I decided for us both, one more savory! After that we both decided on the cheese course which finished off the bottle of wine.

Service was competent and friendly with the whole staff attending to our table over the course of the evening. I wish there were more French wines on the list, and the chairs kinda suck, but neither detracted from the evening's experience. In fact, it was probably the nicest meal I've had in Greensboro in quite a long time. Probably the finest since the 'demise' of Bistro.

Big props to the staff and the chef: Richard Graham Heaton (you can find him on Facebook)

One Less Bike, For Now...

2009-02-25T05:40:00.000-08:00

My Cervelo R3 is heading to a new home in Gothenburg after two years of life in Greensboro. Bogdan, who has lusted after a Cervelo for at least a year now, has decided to buy the frame. Mark has graciously offered to be our bike mule and take it to Gothenburg on his next trip.

I'm sure I'll miss the R3 a little, maybe more than that. But I wasn't riding it and it is too nice to sit in the basement and collect dust. I know Bogdan will give it a good home.

So I'm down to just one bike, but that'll never do...

30 Days with the iPhone

2009-02-18T18:32:00.000-08:00

I love tech-gadgets. I've spent untold amounts of money on them over the years. Without fail, however, they never seem to live up to the promise.

This fear of disappointment is part of the reason I didn't get one of the first generation iPhones. The Blackberry, issued by my employer, and the fact that the iPhone comes with a monthly bill being other reasons.

Circumstances changed and suddenly it made sense to get myself a phone (the Blackberry is gone, my contribution to corporate cost reductions). I've had my iPhone for 30 days (or so) and I have to say that it's better than I could have hoped. A lot better. I absolutely love it. That's not to say it doesn't have any short-comings, it does. The faults of the new iPhone simply pale in comparison to the all the fantastic features it offers.

What's wrong with the iPhone 3G? So far I've found one thing. Battery life. If you leave all the settings as they are when the phone comes out of the box you'll probably experience a 4-8 hour battery life. There are plenty of ways to get more life from the battery, here are a few things that work for me.

1) Turn off 3G - I find that I usually don't need it, and that radio really sucks the life out of the battery. Especially around here where coverage can be spotty. It's easy enough to turn it back on if you need to download a video or stream some music over Pandora (more on that later).

2) Turn off the WiFi - Just like the 3G radio, the WiFi will eat more battery. When I'm home I keep it on, and it doesn't seem to eat too much. Skipping from one network to another seems to eat more juice as it searches for networks to join. So, when you're on the go, turn it off.

3) Turn the brightness down a little. This one isn't quite as dramatic as the others, but it helps. If you're a hard core battery miser, try it.

What's great? For one, the App Store. The applications have to be at least half of the reason that the love the iPhone. Want to be able to do something on the phone? Check the App Store, there's probably an app for it. Here are two of my current favorites, I'll update the blog with more favorites later.

Favorite App 1: Lose It - This is a weight loss / nutrition tool. Enter your vitals, your goals and how fast you want to get there and it will tell you how. You do have to put some effort into tracking what you eat, but I find it very rewarding when you see the charts of your progress. This is going to make me a very good climber this year (I speak of cycling).

Favorite App 2: Pandora - Streaming, customized radio over the 3G or WiFi network. If you don't know about Pandora, check it out at pandora.com. Once you see how fantastic it is, get the iPhone app.

By the way, both of these apps are free from the app store.

Eyeball Update

2009-02-05T19:39:00.000-08:00

Here's a kinda crappy shot of my eye. Took it in bad light with my iPhone so the quality isn't all that great. Still, I think you can see the improvement.

No more pain, hardly any discomfort beyond a nagging dry feeling. The steroid drops leave a nasty taste in my mouth about 15 or 20 minutes after using it. Hopefully I'll be done with those soon.

I'm back on the bike, keeping the intensity down, but not really much more than I would anyway this time

of year. No heavy lifting yet, but that's not a hardship.

Speaking of rides, went on a 70 miler last Saturday up to Reidsville and back. I was alone and wasn't in a hurry so I stopped to take a few pictures. They're from my iPhone again, so a little grainy.

My New Cornea

2009-01-13T13:01:00.001-08:00

That's my new cornea, transplanted on January 12, 2009. Still pretty tender and there are stitches in there somewhere. Not the most comfortable thing to have in your eye.

Dr. Rankin says everything looks good, and I can tell that it's much clearer than it was a few days ago. Can't wait for it to start to feel normal.

Thanks to the donor for being a donor and giving me a healthier eye.

Christmas in New York

2009-01-13T12:21:00.000-08:00

This year we were lucky enough to spend Christmas in New York. I've posted photos from the trip here: http://picasaweb.google.com/eric.r.morrison/NewYorkDecember08

We had intended to blog the whole trip, but never found the time to put it all together. Instead, we'll just hit the highlights.

We stayed at a cool hotel in Greenwich Village called The Washington Square Hotel. It was in a great spot, right across from the park and Babbo. More about Babbo in a minute.

We got to hang out with Katy down at Le Poisson Rouge and enjoy happy hour and a free absinthe tasting. Always good to see Katy.

After seeing Katy we went straight over to Babbo, which is Mario Batali's restaurant. Fantastic dinner, great service, not at all stuffy, exactly the kind of place we'd love to have here in Greensboro. (Kerrie, I hope you're reading this.) It was a little pricey, but we were in New York and it wasn't much more than a dinner at Ruth's Chris.
We found an awesome bike shop, Conrad's, up near 42nd (thanks Katy), and had a free day at the Natural History Museum (thanks again Katy). We had Moroccan for dinner one night, another thing that would be great to have here in Greensboro. Merguez and cous cous is hard to beat.

We found some great Spanish and Mexican food, as well as a very cool Belgian pub, the BXL, full of Dutch and French speakers. Felt like being in Europe.

We walked all over Greenwich Village and Soho and mid-town, saw Spring Awakening on Christmas night and I even got to ride my bike. What a great week.

The New Madison Park Cafe

2008-12-08T07:10:00.000-08:00

We finally made it to the new Madison Park Cafe on Westover. Dinner was great, but the place has an odd vibe.

We got there a little early, around 7:00 or so, and the place was full. Definitely an older, Cosby sweater crowd. The deli cases and cafeteria line are still in place from when the space was Casaldi's. It's a little strange since this is a full service dining room.

Speaking of service, the wait staff seemed to be reading from a script. We heard at least three different servers recommend their favorite dishes to tables around us. Same story every time.

No complaints at all with the meal. I had a pork loin dish that was perfectly cooked and served with au poivre sauce. Fantastic meal. Maybe Ashly will log in and comment on her dish.

I can recommend Madison Park for dinner, but unless the atmosphere changes I don't see this becoming a regular spot for us.

The Deck!

2008-08-14T17:09:00.000-07:00

I've been rebuilding the front deck over the last few months have finally reached a point where it's looking like a deck. I was talking to Scott about it today and he asked for some photos since he'll be starting his own deck project soon. Good luck, Scott!

The gap in the railing here is intentional. That will eventually lead to 'Phase II'.

Brush with Greatness

2008-08-07T19:56:00.000-07:00

In the few years that Ashly and I have been going to France on a regular basis we've had the good fortune to make some friends and familiarize ourselves with the locals of the 6th. Madame Paulette, her husband Casimir and their son Andre have been wonderful to us. There are a couple of bartenders, Max and Bruno, that always remember us and have news of their lives and the neighborhood. The staff at the Moroccan restaurant always welcome us like regulars and the owner sits and chats with us at dinner.

In the cafe we've met some true Parisian characters. None stand out more than Yves Sunhill, that's him in the photo on the left. Yves is a storyteller, to the point that you have absolutely no doubt he's full of shit. He's a good guy and always livens the cafe when he's there, so it's more of an endearing characteristic, not a criticism.

I don't remember how it came up, but Yves told us one evening that he had designed his own car and drove it in the Paris Dakar rally. In fact, he hadn't just driven in the race, he had won it. "Sure Yves, you won Paris Dakar."

Well, I got home from a the trip in 2005 and did a little research. the first return from Google was the picture you see to the left. That's Yves, from the 1981 Paris Dakar, standing beside that car, no doubt. You know how you can recognize a person from the gate of their walk or their posture even more so than from seeing their face? Well that guy beside the car is Yves.

Unfortunately, we didn't see Yves in 2006 or 2007. We had hoped to tell him that we'd seen the photos and accounts of his participation, and triumph, in the Paris Dakar, but he had moved away from the district.

This year Ashly called him while we were in Paris. Luckily he answered his phone and agreed to come see us. We told him that we'd seen a picture of his car and race results and he couldn't believe it. We promised to send him an email with the photos we'd been able to find as soon as we got home.

When we got home and searched for the photos, the first hit from Google took us to an auction selling a model of the 'Buggy Sunhill' you see to the left. This is the original version of the car that he ran in 1979. Click to enlarge the image and you'll see his name on the bottom.

I bought two of these and we're sending one to Yves. I don't think he has any idea a model was made of his car.

You never know who you'll meet when you're traveling.

Asheville in July

2008-07-19T14:30:00.000-07:00

Ashly and I spent a great weekend in Asheville cycling, eating and shopping.

I drove over early on Friday to get in a ride up and over Mt. Pisgah. Turned out to be a fantastic ride which included a little bit of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Ashly met me downtown at the Renaissance hotel in the afternoon and we got ready for dinner. Reservations were for 8:00 at Limones, but first we set out for Sante for a glass of wine and some appetizers. Sante is a nice wine bar and a comfortable place to hang out.

This was my second trip to Limones and it didn't disappoint. I recommend starting with the ceviche and a flight of Anejo Tequila to finish.

Saturday we found a hand made belt and sandals store that's run by Paul Taylor, one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. I looked at belt buckles for 30 minutes (at least) and decided on two that I wanted to buy. Paul cut a belt for me and I can switch out the buckles as I like. Check'em out.

Early in the evening we headed to the roof-top bar just off Wall St. Roof-top is a little misleading as the bar is really located on three levels of a fire escape, but each level has large landings and the lower two have tables.

Dinner Saturday was at Table, also in downtown. The menu was pretty interesting, service was really good and we had a very nice '95 Rioja with dinner. I think it's safe to say that Ashly and I both give Table a good review.

Thursday in Paris

2008-06-26T15:19:00.000-07:00

Today we went out to see a church that Gustav Eiffel had done early in his career (at least the interior was done by him). Turned out not to be quite as dramatic as we had hoped. We did get to walk through a cemetery in Montparnasse that we hadn't seen before, and cemeteries in Paris are always interesting.

Tonight we returned to a favorite restaurant for dinner (second time this week) because the owner had stopped Ashly on the street a couple of days ago and invited us to come back. As it turns out, when you are invited to dinner by the owner, he pays. Add to that the free coffee and croissants at breakfast (merci Mdme Paulette) and free afternoon drinks (again, merci Mdme Paulette) and that's a pretty good deal for a day in Paris.

The Eiffel Church

Montparnasse Cemetery

Ashly at Chez Papa

Me at Chez Papa

A road along the way somewhere today

Courtyard in Montparnasse

Some More Photos

2008-06-25T15:40:00.001-07:00

Le Timbre

2008-06-25T15:18:00.000-07:00

This restaurant, "Le Timbre" (The Postage-Stamp) is the best we have been to so far in Paris. And I mean ever, not just this year. We have made reservations for Friday, our last meal in Paris. We all had duck - Eric had the confit and I had the breast with roasted peaches. Look how light it is outside - it was probably about 9:30pm. Everything has gone by so fast. It is the same every year. But that is why we work for 50 weeks!

New Photos!

2008-06-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

Well, we haven't been online as much as I thought, so updates haven't been as frequent as intended.

This shot was taken on Mont Ventoux during our first ascent. There were event photographers scattered along the climb taking pictures and handing out business cards.

Over to the left there is a slide show with more pictures from Provence.

A Quick Update

2008-06-17T06:47:00.000-07:00

We haven't had access to the internet until just now, and I only have a few minutes, so here's a quick update. More to come as soon as we have a little more time.

This first shot is the small house, the next is of the large house. Both are everything we'd hoped they would be.

The next four are from two rides that Brian and I have been on. The first ride was a pleasant surprise. We didn't really know exactly where we were heading, but it turned out to be fantastic. Tunnels and amazing views all the way.

Monday we rode up the steep side of Ventoux as a scouting trip for our attack on all three sides. Weather at the bottom was OK, but a completely different story at the top. In the clouds, raining and the wind was blowing at around 70 mph over the summit. Bad day to ride up Ventoux. But we did it.

France, 2008

2008-06-05T10:25:00.000-07:00

It's almost here! We're just a week away from heading to France. One week in Provence, one week in Paris (as per usual).

We're meeting Bogdan and Nona in Provence and I believe their two sons will be joining us, or possibly just one of them. One of my cycling friends, Brian, is also coming and I'll be glad to have a partner on the rides. This will be his first trip abroad so that should be interesting.

Cycling plans began about a year ago and we have some epic rides scheduled. Brian and I intend to become the 39th and 40th Americans to climb all three ascents of Mont Ventoux in one day. (I intend to be the 39th, but Brian doesn't know that yet.) My heart rate spikes just thinking about it.

While we're suffering on the cols, Ashly will be visiting some of the best vineyards in France. Chateau neuf, Gigondas and Vacqueyras are all very close to the house.

Ashly and I will be posting photos and updates here as much as we can.

Note: Photo by Ashly, 2006.